Shell to cleanse carbon sins at the pumps
ENERGY Program diverts 2¢ of gas sales to replant forests
CA L GA RY • You could soon be able to wash away your carbon footprint at your gas station. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is rolling out a program in Europe that will allocate as much as 2 cents per litre from the sale of gasoline at its stations to replant forests. The initiative could come to Canada soon, as the company plans to roll it out to the general public.
Chief executive Ben van Beurden says the company first piloted the project in the U. K. and the Netherlands.
It would allow consumers to “offset all of these carbon emissions at extremely low carbon prices,” the CEO told energy executives at the IHS CERA conference in Houston earlier this month.
“This means that everybody who has a car can actually be carbon-free — they don’t have to buy an electric car,” said van Beurden, who annoyed his oil and gas colleagues last year when he said the next car he purchases would be electric. Shell Canada executives were not available to elaborate on the project.
IHS Markit vice-chair Daniel Yergin described the idea as a “carbon sink” at a fill-up station during the conference, referring to the ability to absorb the carbon produced by burning gasoline.
The use of proceeds from gasoline sales to replant forests is one way Shell aims to meet its goal of reducing its net carbon footprint by 50 per cent by 2050, van Beurden said.
Shell is not alone. Competitors i n Canada have begun preparing for the rise of electric vehicles as a threat to their market and preparing for the competitive challenge of Shell’s new program. Calgary- based Parkland Fuel Corp., which owns 1,841 fill- up stations across Canada and in the U. S., is evaluating a new l oyalty program that will — among other features — consider “sustainability,” spokesperson Annie Cuerrier said.
“With our newly acquired national footprint, we are investigating the opportunity to move to a national platform that would support the Parkland family of brands and, most importantly, provide great value for our customers,” she said.
Suncor Energy Inc.’ s network of 1,500 Petro- Canada stations across the country recently re- launched its own loyalty program but did not include carbon- offsets, spokesperson Nicole Fisher said. However, Fisher said the program is “reviewed all the time.” The company is preparing for the rise of electric vehicles and has an electric- vehicle pilot project in Ontario, Fisher said.
Morningstar Research estimates an increasing number of electric vehicles will be sold each year, making up 10 per cent of the overall market by 2025. Other estimates put the market share for electric vehicles at just under five per cent by 2025.
Regardless of how much market share electric cars steal, integrated oil players and gasoline and diesel station operators are preparing for the changing market with new programs to counter the threat — though some analysts believe the programs resemble existing carbon taxes.
“Would this be redundant for most drivers?” GasBuddy analyst Dan McTeague asked, adding that most Canadians already pay a carbon tax in excess of the two cents per litre contemplated by Shell.
Consumers in B.C. pay the most for a carbon tax at eight cents per litre for gasoline, while those in Alberta and Quebec pay seven cents per litre, Manitoba will soon pay 5.86 cents per litre and Ontario residents already pay 4.63 cents per litre.
Still, McTeague said the program could be enticing for people who want to limit their carbon footprint to buy a gas- burning car instead of an electric version as “the cost of buying an electric vehicle is downright prohibitive without incentives.”